Kiski Area, Freeport, Fox Chapel swimmers chasing gold at WPIAL championships

By: Michael Love
Wednesday, March 1, 2023 | 3:34 PM

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Title defenses, breakout performances and cheering crowds, oh my.

Pitt’s Trees Pool will be alive Thursday and Friday as the site of the WPIAL Class 3A and 2A swimming championships.

In the Alle-Kiski Valley, the Fox Chapel girls seek a championship in Class 3A after giving North Allegheny all it could handle last year, and the Kiski Area boys and girls will test themselves in Class 2A after dropping down in the offseason.

Freeport sophomore Kira Schrecongost hopes to defend her Class 2A 100-yard butterfly title, and several local individuals and relays are the hunted as top seeds for their respective races.

Those are just some of the storylines ready to play out on the WPIAL’s grandest stage.

The Class 3A timed finals will begin at 9:45 a.m. each day with the Class 2A finals set for 3 p.m. Day 1 will feature the 200 medley relay, 200 freestyle, 200 individual medley, 50 free, 100 fly and 200 free relay.

Day 2 will have the 100 free, 500 free, 100 backstroke, 100 breaststroke and 400 free relay.

The top eight finishers in each event at WPIALs will earn medals. Only the WPIAL champion earns an automatic bid to the PIAA meet at Bucknell, and other top finishers will hope their times will be good enough to earn at-large selections to states to fill out the 32 entries for each individual and relay event.

Class 2A

Kiski Area coach Ryan Berberich said strong performances at the Westmoreland County Coaches Association championships Jan. 28 propelled the boys and girls swimmers in the final weeks leading to WPIALs.

“It was a big boost, no doubt,” he said. “We had some great swims. The kids were really rooting on each other. That day, we were one in support of each other, and that carried into the rest of our meets and workouts. Now, we’re ready to, hopefully, make all the hard work pay off.”

Kiski junior Eliza Miller hopes to fend off the field as the No. 1 seed in the girls 200 IM and 500 free. It is the first time she is a WPIAL top seed in either individual event.

She broke the school 500 record during the season (5 minutes, 5.31 seconds) and hopes to go under 5 minutes Friday.

“There’s a little pressure in the 200 IM because I know it is going to be a close race,” Miller said. “In the 500, I have a little more wiggle room, but I don’t want to take anything for granted.”

Mapletown senior Ella Menear is seeded second in the 200 IM and is the defending champ. She and Miller are separated by 21-hundredths of a second in their seed times.

Miller was 16 seconds faster than anyone else in the 500.

“It’s crazy to think WPIALs is here,” Miller said. “The season went by so fast. Now is the time to step up and swim fast.”

The boys 500 is loaded with local talent, led by Kiski Area senior and West Virginia commit Parker Sterlitz as the No. 1 seed.

Fellow Cavaliers senior and Cincinnati commit Levi Hansen is the fourth seed, followed by KA junior Landon Seman in fifth, Knoch freshman Adrian Lavorini in eighth and Burrell senior David Matovcik in ninth.

“It’s going to be a great race,” said Sterlitz, who also is the fourth seed for the 200 free. “I am really excited. With Levi (Hansen), Landon, Eliza and others, I think Kiski Area has really become a distance-oriented team this year.”

The Kiski Area boys hope to show their depth in the relays. The Cavaliers are the top seed in the 400 free relay and the second seed in the 200 medley and 200 free relays.

The 200 and 400 free relays set school records at WPIALs last year.

“It was really rewarding to see where we were placed in all three relays because it took a lot of strong teamwork to make it happen,” said Hansen, also the fifth seed in the 200 free.

Berberich didn’t divulge the specific lineups for each relay, saying only that the coaches have a game plan for all three.

“I’ve always told my kids that I don’t care where we’re placed or whatever the circumstances are, we’re going to compete,” Berberich said.

Berberich feels that with the depth on both teams, they can make a run at the WPIAL titles in Class 2A.

The Mt. Pleasant girls, with Olympic trials qualifier Lily King leading the way, are the defending champions. Hampton is the defending boys champion.

“I told the kids that it was important to qualify in as many events as we can,” Berberich said. “We wanted to give ourselves options to put us in the right positions when we figure out what events we want to swim.”

The Freeport girls also hope to make some noise. They finished fifth in the standings last year behind Mt. Pleasant, Quaker Valley and Blackhawk.

Schrecongost is seeded third as the defending 100 fly champion. She also hopes to give Miller a run for her money as the third seed in the 200 IM.

Miller said she has raced Schrecongost before and is excited to do it again in the fastest heat Thursday,

The girls 100 breaststroke will feature two local products near the top and in the final heat. Knoch sophomore Giona Lavorini earned the second seed (1:05.25), and Kiski junior Abby King is seeded third (1:07.60).

Lavorini was fifth in the 100 breast last year and fourth in the 200 IM.

Other top-three seeds include the Kiski Area girls 200 medley relay (third), and Cavaliers sophomore Amara Sterlitz in the 500 free (third).

Class 3A

Fox Chapel senior Sophie Shao, a Brown commit, will cap a memorable WPIAL career.

Her accomplishments at WPIALs are many: seven championships, including three 100 fly titles, and the WPIAL 3A record in the 100 fly.

Her 100 fly time of 53.85 seconds last year eclipsed the longstanding record of 54.16 set by Penn Hills’ Melanie Buddemeyer in 1984.

Shao, who has never finished with a place below fourth in any of her previous six individual and six relay events at WPIALs, is the top seed in the 200 IM and 100 fly as she seeks to defend her titles in both.

The deep Fox Chapel girls own seven top-three seeds. Last year, they finished second with 314 team points — the top 16 in each event earns points — to North Allegheny’s 344 as the Tigers won their 14th straight Class 3A team title.

The Foxes girls 200 medley and 400 free relays also won WPIAL titles last year. Both are seeded third.

North Allegheny already has a leg up on the rest of the girls field as its divers claimed first, third, fourth and 11th at last Saturday’s Class 3A diving championships.

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.

Tags: Fox Chapel, Freeport, Kiski Area